By Winifred E. Campbell, Esq. This month, a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California determined that Merck & Company, Inc. (“Merck”) will have to pay the attorneys’ fees for Gilead Sciences, Inc. (“Gilead”) based on the doctrine of unclean hands related to Gilead’s defense of a messy patent infringement litigation. There’s no Read more about The Doctrine of Unclean Hands: When Deals Get Dirty[…]
By Christopher J. McHattie & Tara Quaglione In the midst of litigation, or as it seems at times the “fog of war,” a key function of both attorneys and clients is to “issue spot;” i.e., to carefully consider each newly discovered fact and potential problem, to scrutinize even the most minute detail, because it may Read more about In the Trenches: Issue Spotting[…]
By: Christopher McHattie, Esq. and Sean Sanders The verdict is in and Led Zeppelin is off the hook following a highly publicized copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the estate of Spirit’s Randy Wolfe (a.k.a., Randy California). Following a two-year legal battle, a Los Angeles jury found last week that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” did Read more about The Song Remains the Same: Jury Shows a Whole Lotta Love for Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven[…]
By: Christie McGuinness and Winifred E. Campbell, Esq. Nothing embodies the season of fall more than Homecoming football games, Halloween, and pumpkin picking. Well, maybe with the exception of Starbucks’ infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte. A season staple of the coffee mega house, it is something many Americans look forward to, and it has become a Read more about STARBUCKS CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ALLEGES A BREACH OF AN EXPRESS WARRANTY[…]
Christopher McHattie & Sean E. Sanders Last year’s copyright infringement action between Marvin Gaye’s estate and Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams has songwriters, lyricists and composers looking over their shoulders. The decision raises important questions on how “short” a musical work can be to be entitled to copyright protection. Is a sequence of 10 notes Read more about How “Small” Can Copyright Go? Or, How The Music Industry Is Eating Its Tail[…]
As predicted in our November 13, 2014 post, “Flag On The Play”, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has held that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) stuck its “subjective nose” so far into trademark owners’ choices of trademarks that the U.S. Constitution has been violated. In re Read more about Flag On The Play, Part Deux[…]
In 2013 U.S. District Judge Swain, when ruling on Tiffany’s Motion for Summary Judgment, held: “The question of whether a mark is, or has become, generic is generally one of fact,” citing Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. McNeil-P.P.C. Inc., 973 F.2d 1033, 1039 (2d Cir. 1992) Tiffany & Co. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., Civil Action No. Read more about Tiffany v. Costco – Kreskin says: I See An Appeal In Your Future[…]
On Wednesday, the European Union’s (“EU”) antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, began official proceedings against Google by formally accusing it of alleged anti-competitive behavior. Vestager has launched an investigation to reveal whether or not Google was unfairly bundling its apps on the Android phone’s operating systems and whether or not shopping search results favored only top-rated competitors Read more about Don’t Be Evil, Google.[…]